Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

Saudis push for ‘plan B’ that excludes Israel from key deal with US

Posted on by

Riyadh seeks more modest agreement with Washington in absence of Gaza ceasefire and Netanyahu resistance to Palestinian state

The US and Saudi Arabia have drafted a set of agreements on security and technology-sharing which were intended to be linked to a broader Middle East settlement involving Israel and the Palestinians.

However, in the absence of a ceasefire in Gaza and in the face of adamant resistance from Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government to the creation of a Palestinian state – and its apparent determination to launch an offensive on Rafah – the Saudis are pushing for a more modest plan B, which excludes the Israelis.

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia activist sentenced to 11 years in prison for ‘support’ of women’s rights

Posted on by

Manahel al-Otaibi, who frequently promoted female empowerment on social media, was arrested under anti-terror laws

A young women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia was secretly sentenced to 11 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court after being arrested for “her choice of clothing and support for women’s rights”.

Saudi officials confirmed in a statement to the United National high commissioner for Human Rights that Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced on 9 January for what the Saudi government called “terrorist offences”.

Continue reading...

Middle East crisis: 40-day ceasefire on table if Hamas accepts deal, says UK foreign minister – as it happened

Posted on by

Current proposed deal includes 40-day ceasefire and release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages, says David Cameron

Antony Blinken has told a meeting of regional leaders in Riyadh that the most effective way to alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza is to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking in Saudi Arabia, the US secretary of state said that there had been “measurable progress” in delivering aid to Gaza, which Israel has beseiged for six months, but more is needed.

Continue reading...

Peter Hain calls for inquiry into MoD’s alleged role in Saudi bribes scandal

Posted on by

Government auditors must look into claims of complicity in corruption on arms deals with UK, says Labour peer

Alleged Ministry of Defence complicity in the “national scandal” of bribery on arms deals in Saudi Arabia must be investigated by government auditors, a senior Labour politician has said.

Peter Hain, the antiapartheid campaigner and peer, said in a letter to the National Audit Office (NAO) that a “timely, targeted” investigation was now necessary after the conclusion of a major criminal trial.

Continue reading...

Gulf states’ response to Iran-Israel conflict may decide outcome of crisis

Posted on by

Tit-for-tat attacks present Sunni monarchies with complicated choices over region’s future

Iran’s missile and drone attack on Israel had, by the end of this week, become one of the most interpreted events in recent modern history. Then, in the early hours of Friday, came reports of Israel’s riposte. As in June 1914, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in a moment that ultimately led to the first world war, these shots were heard around the world, even if few can agree conclusively on what they portend.

By one de minimis account, Tehran was merely sending a performative warning shot with its attack last Saturday, almost taking its ballistic missiles out for a weekend test drive. The maximalist version is that this was a state-on-state assault designed to change the rules of the Middle East. By swarming Israel with so many projectiles, such an assessment goes, Iran was prepared to risk turning Israel into a mini-Dresden of 1945 and was only thwarted by Israeli strategic defences and, crucially, extraordinary cooperation between the US, Israel and Sunni Gulf allies.

Continue reading...

Weather tracker: Gulf braced for thunderstorms

Posted on by

Heavy rain forecast in Saudi Arabia and UAE as France and Spain cool down after weekend of high temperatures

Intense thunderstorms are forecast across parts of the Gulf on Monday and Tuesday, bringing very high rainfall to the region and a significant flooding risk in parts.

Low pressure over the Arabian peninsula will deepen on Monday while a flow of moist tropical air moves into the region, significantly enhancing the production of showers as a result.

Continue reading...

End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity

Posted on by

Crown prince’s pet project was sold as a 105-mile-long city of the future, but finances may have led to a rethink

It was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency.

Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is expected to reach just a mile and a half by 2030.

Continue reading...

Another World Cup will be tainted by worker deaths if Fifa fails to act, say rights groups

Posted on by

Saudi Arabia is likely to host the 2034 tournament, but a Guardian investigation has revealed there are already a high number of ‘unexplained’ migrant worker deaths in the Gulf kingdom

Human rights organisations are warning that another World Cup will be tainted by the deaths and suffering of low-paid workers if Fifa does not take urgent steps to ensure that Saudi Arabia deals with the widespread abuse of its migrant workforce.

As the sole bidder, Saudi Arabia is almost certain to be anointed by Fifa this year as host of the World Cup in 2034, but rights groups said “workers cannot afford a repeat of Qatar 2022”.

Continue reading...

Foreign Office official floated idea of giving honour to fixer for Saudi royals

Posted on by

Salah Fustok alleged by UK prosecutors to have been a middleman for nearly £10m in payments to Saudi prince

A Foreign Office official floated the idea of giving an honour to a businessman who was later alleged to have helped facilitate millions of pounds of bribes to a Saudi prince and his high-ranking associates.

Salah Fustok was alleged by UK anti-corruption prosecutors to have been a middleman for nearly £10m of payments to Prince Miteb bin Abdullah and other Saudi officials as “an inducement or reward” for the awarding of a contract by the Saudi Arabian national guard.

Continue reading...

US delegation leaves Saudi Arabia early over kippah row

Posted on by

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom cuts visit short after rabbi told to remove Jewish head covering

A US delegation on religious freedom said on Monday it cut short its visit to Saudi Arabia after one of its members was asked to remove his Jewish head covering, or kippah.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said its delegation was near Riyadh visiting Diriyah, a historic town and Unesco world heritage site, when the commission’s chair, the Orthodox rabbi Abraham Cooper, “refused their requests that he remove his religious head covering”.

Continue reading...

US defence contractor paid commissions to Saudi firm later alleged to be conduit for bribes

Posted on by

Harris had longstanding relationship with ABTSS, later alleged by British prosecutors to have handled or received illegal payments

One of the largest military contractors in the US paid commissions to a Saudi company later alleged to have been a conduit for bribes for the kingdom’s royal family.

A document disclosed in a UK criminal trial revealed that Harris Corporation, now L3Harris, paid commissions to the Saudi company for over two decades for services in the kingdom.

Continue reading...

Alicia Keys criticised for Women’s Day event in ‘misogynist’ Saudi Arabia

Posted on by

The US singer has been called out by human rights activists for hosting a summit and performing on stage in the repressive state

Performer Alicia Keys projects a powerful position on women’s rights, hosting a regular Women to Women summit and posting inspirationally on Instagram on Friday for International Women’s Day. But the singer-songwriter’s message is undermined for some by the revelation that she is hosting the third edition of her summit this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

The American performer and her guests, including Pharrell Williams, best known for his worldwide hit Happy, are to discuss “how women are pushing the culture forward in Saudi Arabia and around the world”, she has announced, before the get-together in the coastal city of Jeddah.

Continue reading...

MoD paid millions into Saudi account amid BAE corruption scandal

Posted on by

Documents show officials stressing need to ‘keep the Saudis on side’ after revelations about notorious al-Yamamah deal

Britain’s Ministry of Defence moved questionable payments through its own bank account amid one of the biggest corruption scandals in history, despite concerns the money could be pocketed by the Saudi royal family.

Previously confidential documents show how the MoD agreed to make the payments to a Saudi bank account after the transactions came under scrutiny following an investigation by the UK anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Continue reading...

‘Deniable fiddle’: the MoD, Saudi Arabia and a scandal half a century in the making

Posted on by

Revelations about payments by Ministry of Defence are culmination of decades of British deal-making with Saudis

The revelation that the Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a firm that would later be accused of being a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi officials is the culmination of a scandal that has been half a century in the making.

The £8m paid from an MoD bank account between 2014 and 2017 was in connection with a large defence deal, Sangcom, first struck in the 1970s.

Continue reading...

MoD signed £8m deal with firm later alleged to be conduit for secret payments to Saudi prince

Posted on by

Project Arrow contract signed amid scramble to keep on track £1.6bn defence deal and ran until at least 2017

The UK Ministry of Defence paid millions of pounds to a company later alleged to have been a conduit for secret payments to high-ranking Saudi Arabian officials including a member of the royal family.

The MoD payments, worth £8m, were made under a contract codenamed Project Arrow that ran until at least 2017, according to documents that surfaced in a criminal trial.

Continue reading...

Two men acquitted of bribing Saudis in huge British defence deal

Posted on by

Jury acquits Jeffrey Cook and John Mason after lawyers argue payments were authorised by UK and Saudi governments

Two men have been acquitted of paying bribes totalling millions of pounds to high-ranking Saudis after they argued that they had been unfairly prosecuted.

Jeffrey Cook and John Mason had been accused of bribing a Saudi prince and his associates to secure and maintain a huge defence deal for a British company. But on Wednesday, a jury in London acquitted them after lawyers argued the payments had been authorised by the British and Saudi governments.

Continue reading...

Iran not seeking war with US but ‘not afraid of it’, says military chief

Posted on by

Head of Islamic Revolutionary Guards defiant as US prepares ‘very consequential response’ to drone attack on Jordan base

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has vowed the country is not afraid of war with the US, as the Pentagon weighs how directly to respond to the killing of three US servicemen in a drone attack in Jordan.

The IRGC commander-in-chief, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said: “We hear some threats from American officials about targeting Iran. We tell them that you tested us and we know each other. We do not leave any threat unanswered, and we do not look for war, but we are not afraid of it. This is the well-known truth.”

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia surprises oil markets by ditching plan to increase production

Posted on by

Blow to Joe Biden, who had hoped to benefit from lower pump prices in an election year

Saudi Arabia has cast doubt on the future of the global oil market after abandoning plans to grow its crude production capacity by 1m barrels a day.

The world’s biggest exporter signalled a big change in policy by ordering the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, to drop plans to expand its maximum production capacity to 13m barrels a day by 2027.

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia to allow first alcohol sales in 72 years, dividing opinion

Posted on by

Shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats – but some fear it is first step to wider availability of alcohol in teetotal kingdom

The news that Saudi Arabia will allow its first alcohol shop has citizens and foreigners alike mulling one question: is this a minor policy tweak, or a major upheaval?

Sources familiar with preparations for the store disclosed details of the plan on Wednesday, as a document circulated indicating just how carefully leaders of the teetotal Gulf kingdom will manage its operations.

Continue reading...

Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

Posted on by

Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

Continue reading...